I stumbled across this show a few years ago and have really enjoyed listening to it. Ladd himself wrote most of the scripts, and I've found it really well written and acted for the most part.

A synapsis of the show from a fan website:

Quote:

Box 13 was a syndicated radio series starring ALAN LADD as newspaper reporter-turned-novelist Dan Holiday. Holiday obtained ideas for his novels through an ad he placed in the Classified section of his old paper, The Star-Times. It read:

This ad brought the usual assortment of crackpot responses, but more often than not brought Holiday more trouble than he bargained for, since he never found out the pertinent details until after he'd met the clients. He never charged a fee for his "services" (for lack of a better term), as he explained in one episode, because he was paid very well for the stories he wrote.

The only other regular characters who appeared in the series were the obligatory ditzy secretary, Suzie (played by SYLVIA PICKER) and police lieutenant Kling (played by Edmund MacDonald). The series aired from 1948 to 1949, and was syndicated by Ladd's own company, Mayfair Transcriptions.

Any other fans of the show? If you haven't heard it and like quirky adventure/crime type radio shows, I recommend giving it a listen.

I found most if not all of the episodes at Archive.org for anyone who is interested in checking it out.

Haha! I dunno, I really like Ladd's acting in the series. Sure, it's a little over the top maybe, but to me it adds to the character. In reality, someone would have to be a little nuts to want random adventures just to write about, so for me it works.

On the other hand, I find the character Suzy to be a bit annoying. Played by Sylvia Picker, she tends to be the very stereotypical 1940's/50's 'ditzy dame' with the whiney voice.